


not even the truth

by WynCatastrophe



Series: Life in Freefall [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Clone Wars (TV 2008)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-13 18:31:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/506441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WynCatastrophe/pseuds/WynCatastrophe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the second battle for Geonosis, three soldiers take a time-out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	not even the truth

**Author's Note:**

> Given the pervasiveness of Ryn in my head!canon, it seemed ridiculous not to answer this challenge. It was hard to choose just one scene, but I've picked up at the end of the CW episode and I hope it's familiar to most of you. Anyway. Oh! And I do not own _Star Wars_. You're all shocked, right?

**Author:**[](http://wyncatastrophe.livejournal.com/profile) **wyncatastrophe**  
 **Title:** not even the truth  
 **Challenge 2010-30: OC**  
Word Count:1,005  
 **Characters:** Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, OC  
 **Rating:** PG  
 **Summary:** During the second battle for Geonosis, three soldiers take a time-out.  
 **Author's Notes:** Given the pervasiveness of Ryn in my head!canon, it seemed ridiculous not to answer this challenge. It was hard to choose just one scene, but I've picked up at the end of the CW episode and I hope it's familiar to most of you. Anyway. Oh! And I do not own _Star Wars_. You're all shocked, right?

 

____________________________________________  
NOT EVEN THE TRUTH

 

_I had to fall in love with a hero._

Ryn grimaces and pushes her dark glasses up her nose, irritated with the heat and the grit and the glare, but mostly with herself. She cares too much, she knows it. He's not _hers_ anymore. He's made his choice, and the only thing for her to do is accept it.

Except ... he _is_ hers, in a lot of little ways that matter. This is a side of him that she _knows_ Padmé never sees: fierce and focused and driven.

Of course, Ahsoka sees this side of him, too.

And then he looks up from welcoming his Padawan back with open arms - Ryn arrived on the scene just in time to catch all the brouhaha over Ahsoka and Bariss, trapped in the bridge collapse when their masters blew it out from under the brand-new Geonosian super assault vehicles, whatever they were called - and winks at her.

"Sunny with a chance of destruction," he says, cheerful because he's saved somebody again, and Ryn rolls her eyes behind the shades.

She lets him have his underwhelming attempt at humor, because he and Luminara have just lifted several tons between them - and even her limited Force skills can tell that it's mostly Anakin - and because he is elated at winning the battle and exhilarated at rescuing Ahsoka and absolutely gutted over their lost clone troopers.

She squints up, trying to ignore the sand in her eyes, and smiles down at him from the higher ground. "One hundred percent chance of sandstorms," she says, and he snorts.

"This isn't a _real_ sandstorm."

She grins. "I defer to your expert opinion."

"If only you were always so agreeable."

Ahsoka steps in, breaking the moment as she so often does these days. Ryn has a theory it's because she isn't really comfortable with their closeknit relationship; she feels excluded, or maybe she just thinks it's too intimate for a Jedi and she really ought to be steering her Master back onto the straight and narrow. Ryn lets it go this time because she's awfully young, and she's just had a terrible fright, and whatever her other faults, she does truly love her master.

They've got that in common.

"Master," Ahsoka says, still quivering a little. "I think my lightsaber needs a tune-up. I was wondering if ..."

She lets her voice trail away, probably because she's noticed the way Anakin's eyes cut to Ryn. It's a tell, one Ryn isn't sure he knows he has. When he wants to get out of something, for whatever reason, he shoots her a sidelong glance. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But she's his escape route, his default, his fallback plan.

They never acknowledge all the ways in which that's been true over the years.

On this particular day, in the middle of the taking Geonosis for the second time, with wounded clone troopers boarding transports all around her and the battle over for a few hours at least, Ryn steps in and pushes her glasses up to the top of her head, even though that means more grit in her eyes, grit that she can't remove with a simple application of the Force like the other Sensitives on this mission. She'll have to wait for Anakin to do it, later.

Sometimes she feels like she's been waiting half her life for Anakin to do something.

Some of those things will never be done.

She lives in defiance of this open secret, and today her defiance takes the form of an easygoing suggestion: "I think my lightsaber could use some work, too. We might as well make it a threesome."

It makes her the third wheel, in a way - not that that's relevant on a world that uses repulsor technology - but it does what it needs to: saves Anakin from being alone with Ahsoka, and the feelings he doesn't want to think about: too much caring and protectiveness and worry and that ugly word, _attachment_.

She's pretty sure that being alone with Anakin is exactly what Ahsoka _does_ want, but Ahsoka is not her priority. A nice kid, sure. A decent being for whom Ryn has great respect. Even, in some ways, a friend. But when push comes to shove, her loyalties lie with Anakin.

She made her choices a long time ago.

It takes a minute, but Ahsoka forgives her. Maybe a little grudgingly, she nods at Ryn - always so wary of her master's human female friend, clearly seeing all the implications of their closeness and not privy to the knowledge of what's really going on with Senator Amidala. Ryn takes her resentment because the alternative is the truth, and Anakin is still sure that's not a good idea.

Ryn sighs through her teeth and refrains from pointing out - again - that his non-strategy is doomed to failure, that this crazy lie they're all living comes with an expiration date and it's _soon_. He hears the sigh, or senses her frustration, and raises his eyebrows, but she just shakes her head at him. This isn't the time.

"Hey," Ahsoka says. "I saw that."

_Of course you did._

"Just old frustrations," Ryn says lightly. She plays the older sister role a lot these days, whether it sits well or not. "Hey, I brought a pack of parts and crystals. We should see what's in there."

Anakin's eyes light up, as they usually do when anticipating mechanical hijinks. Ahsoka bounces on her toes, excited because he is, and Ryn falls into step behind the two of them, backtracking toward the gunship that delivered her.

It's not a mechanics shop and a houseful of kids, but it's good enough to get by on.


End file.
